Can measurements define the space created by a system? How about the 2nd and 3rd harmonics that give body and life to an instrument? Do they measure soundstaging/imaging properties? (the latter are "false" qualities, IMO, the province of systems/listeners who have not discovered the first two)
I've heard systems with measured "flat" response that sounded dead. I'd speculate one way to achieve flatness is to pad everything down to the lowest denominator. Of course, this makes for boring listening but measures great!
In part, I think you've just described what I believe makes my system so satisfying to my wife and I.
My approach to achieving satisfaction in my system begins and ends w/ the speakers. IMO, if I'm to learn anything about what I'm hearing from the rest of my equipment, the speakers must be as absolutely neutral and measure as flat as possible. IOW, they must be truest form of transducer, uncolored to the extreme.
I believe I have about as uncolored a speaker as I've ever heard in the SP Technology Timepieces... at least at anything approaching their price point. But since they are so uncolored, and since they are so revealing, they will produce the most heinous sound imaginable if paired w/ the wrong equipment. Similar results are wrought even if paired w/ the
right equipment if listening to poorly mixed/mastered/recorded material.
And here's where your points come into play...
My Butler Monad monoblocks were designed so that very pure 2nd order harmonics are intentionally produced. Sure, other distortion is present as well - due in part to the use of the BK Butler-spec'd 300B on the output stage - but I believe the 2nd order harmonics do most of the important stuff. The auditory result of the Monads + Timepieces (or any of the SP Tech line, actually) is dumbfounding... and I mean that in the best possible way.
I can hear so deeply into the music, be made aware of every detail of everything recorded, and have it presented to me in a way that is so musical, so real, so satisfyingly organic that I can't wait to hear the next movement, song, or CD.
That said, nothing is w/o trade-offs, and my system is no different. If the recording is average or worse, my ears pay the price. That really sucks when the song or CD is something I really like to listen to in the car or on the radio, but such is life. I'd rather have the ability to get lost in the depth and breadth of a good or better recording than have everything sound just OK. Given how good some of my favorite material sounds, it's a trade-off I'm more than willing to make.
-Jim